1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parking brake apparatus which operates to apply the parking brake via a brake cable by operating an operating lever having a pawl adapted to engage with and disengage from a ratchet plate fixedly provided on a base to rotate.
2. Description of the Background Art
As a conventional parking brake apparatus, there is an automotive parking brake apparatus generally referred to as a hand-operated lever type parking brake apparatus having an operating portion as shown, for example, in FIG. 5. In this type of parking brake apparatus, an operating lever 202 is pivotally supported on a base 200 which is fixedly provided on a floor side of a vehicle in such a manner as to rotate about a pivot shaft 201. In addition, a ratchet plate 203 is fixedly provided on the base 200. A pawl 204 is pivotally supported on the operating lever 202 in such a manner as to be brought into engagement with and disengagement from a toothed portion of the ratchet plate 203.
A cable drum 205 is provided in a lower portion of the operating lever 202, and when the operating lever 202 is rotated to rise, a brake cable 206 is taken up by the cable drum 205, whereby a braking portion applies the brake. The brake-applied state can be held by causing the pawl 204 to be locked on the ratchet plate 203.
In the parking brake apparatus having the operating portion of this type, while the operating lever 202 is generally mounted in a center console in such a state that the operating lever 202 is exposed therefrom, since there should be nothing that interrupts the operation of the operating lever 202 in the operating area thereof, there is caused a problem that an accommodating space provided in the center console for accommodating a cup or the like is limited.
As a solution to this problem, there exists a parking brake apparatus that is disclosed in Germany Patent Examined Publication DE 2 226 967. Namely, this parking brake apparatus is such that an arc-shaped long arm member which extends upwards is provided at a distal end portion of an intermediate member which is mounted in such a manner as to rotate at a proximal end portion thereof, a grip is provided at an upper end portion of the arm member, and the intermediate member is accommodated inside a center console in such a manner that most of the arm member appears from the inside of the center console to the outside thereof and disappears from the outside of the center console into the inside thereof as the parking brake apparatus is operated, whereby an accommodating space provided in the center console is not limited. In this parking brake apparatus, a release rod provided in the grip is made to be operated by a release button so as to cause a relay rod securely inserted within the arm member to operate via a link.
In the related art like this, however, the relay rod which receives the operation of the release rod via the link deflects in a direction in which the relay rod is brought into collision with the arm member. To prevent the interference of the relay rod with the arm member, a clearance needs to be provided between the relay rod and the arm member, and to make this happen, the arm member has to be made thick. However, making the arm member thick results in limitation on the accommodating space formed in the center console for accommodation of a cup or the like, leading to a problem that space saving cannot necessarily be implemented effectively.
In addition, although the interference between the arm portion and the relay rod could be eliminated even in the event that the relay rod deflected by providing the aforesaid clearance, there was caused a problem that the transmission stroke for transmitting the operation of the relay rod was lost by the deflection of the relay rod.